Confusing
by Finvarra Faerie
Summary: Professor Layton and Flora has gone out to run some errands while Luke remains at home with Clive. Luke is incredibly bored, but Clive manages to keep him entertained with various riddles! Will Luke manage to solve them all?


**Author's Note: **Hello, readers and writers! This story is part four of my Professor Layton series; the first ones being '**Puzzling**', '**Perplexing**', and '**Flummoxing**'. You don't have to read those to get what is going on in this story though. Also, I did not make up the riddles that are portrayed throughout the story. Anyway, enjoy! :)

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><p><strong>Confusing<strong>

Sighing, Luke finally figured out the puzzle Professor Layton had given him before he had left to go run errands. Flora had gone with him and he was just at the professor's place with Clive. Little Luke didn't know where Clive's exact location was at, but knew that he must be upstairs somewhere.

"There's nothing to do…" Luke murmured to himself, his expression morphing into a look of pure boredom. He sat at the kitchen table with a plate of untouched cookies and a glass of milk that was half full. The boy had his chin resting in his hands while his elbows sat on the table.

Clive suddenly entered the kitchen with a book in his hands. He seemed incredibly immersed in it and didn't notice Luke until he removed his attention from it. "Oh. Luke? I thought you had gone out with Flora and the professor."

Moving his gaze over to the older male, Luke shrugged and shook his head. "No. I'm still here and awfully bored." the boy answered.

Clive took a seat across from the younger male and sat his book down onto the table, putting his elbows onto the table as well and lacing his fingers together. He stared at Luke for a very long moment before putting his eyes on the book that he had been reading moments ago.

"Would you like to solve some riddles?" Clive questioned Luke curiously.

Luke perked up instantly and he brought his attention to the young man. "What? Do you mean like puzzles?" He asked eagerly, getting ready to solve another puzzle.

"Yes." Clive responded.

"Okay!" Luke yawped while nodded his head vigorously, anxious to see what kind of puzzles/riddles Clive had in store for him.

A smile curled Clive's lips and he read the first riddle from his book, "What's full of holes but still holds water?"

An expression of rumination colored Luke's facial features and he brought a hand to his chin, thinking deeply on what Clive had said. "That isn't so tough. It's a sponge, isn't it?" Luke questioned.

"That's correct." Clive responded, nodding.

Luke grinned beatifically. "No puzzle can stop Layton's apprentice!"

"Right, next one," Clive commented. "What building has the most stories?"

"A library!"

"Ding, ding, ding! You are correct, Luke!" Clive was impressed. _He_ didn't even get the answer right away when he first read that riddle. That made him a little aggravated, but he tolerated it and brushed it off as nothing.

Luke laughed and clapped his hands, satisfied with his recent accomplishment. These riddles/puzzles were way too easy for him! Layton's apprentice compared these riddles to making a PB&J sandwich!

"Okay, on to the next one we have in this splendid book of riddles," Clive announced while turning a page. "Oh! How about this one? This one is a hard one."

"Let me hear it!" Luke commanded, ready.

"Pronounced as one letter,

And written with three,

Two letters there are,

And two only in me.

I'm double, I'm single,

I'm black, blue, and gray,

I'm read from both ends,

And the same either way.

What am I?"

"…an eye?"

Clive looked at the answer of the riddle and deflated somewhat. "That is…correct." he muttered, unhappy that he didn't even get that one, but Luke did.

"Yes!" Luke threw up his hands jollily.

Clive mumbled something under his breath, confused as to how Luke was getting the answers to all of these riddles. "What other letter fits in the following series?" The male pushed the book over to Luke, showing him the 'following series'.

X

Luke took a good and long look at the letters portrayed in the book, frowning in deep contemplation. When he figured it out, he looked up at Clive. "H?"

"You're right." Clive sighed, pulling the book away from Luke and flipping to another page.

Luke cheered.

"What is the best month for a parade?" Clive voiced the next riddle.

"March!"

"Correct…"

Luke did a little victory dance in his chair.

"You can keep it only after giving it away to someone else. What is it?"

"Your word."

"_Correct_…"

Luke chortled.

"What two words have thousands of letters in them?"

"Oh, that's easy! Post office!"

"Right again, Luke," Clive forced out, upset that he didn't get any of these riddles. He tried to find one that Luke would have trouble with. "At night they come without being fetched. By day they are lost without being stolen. What are they?"

Luke grinned. "The stars!"

"Right _again_…"

Luke smiled brightly in the other male's direction.

"What English word has three consecutive double letters?"

"Bookkeeper!" Luke chirped like a bird on a beautiful morning. "I've heard that riddle before! Ha!"

Clive felt foolish for not even figuring that one out! Now a bit solemn, Clive flipped to another page in the book. "He has married many women, but has never been married. Who is he?"

"A priest." Luke blared.

Clive didn't even bother telling Luke that he got that one correct and moved on to the next one. "When one does not know what it is, then it is something; but when one knows what it is, then it is nothing…"

"Ummmmm…" Luke put on a look of pure determination and concentration. "A riddle…right?"

Clive slammed the book shut and forced a smile in the boy's direction. "That's enough riddles for one day! How's about I make us some lunch?" He questioned, still confused as to how he didn't get most of those riddles himself and Luke was able to with complete ease.

Luke rubbed his belly. "Oh, I _am_ quite famished."

"Then I shall make us lunch." Clive concluded, going over to the stove and oven to prepare something to eat.


End file.
